


A Dozen Red Roses

by Wileycap



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Cultural Differences, Diakko, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, One Shot, Romance, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22777309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wileycap/pseuds/Wileycap
Summary: It's Valentine's Day. A free day in Luna Nova, and Diana Cavendish wants to, at long last, confess to the girl she's been ridiculously infatuated with ever since they literally held hands while saving the world. So, how could you go wrong with a dozen red roses delivered before breakfast, on Valentine's Day?In many ways, if your target is Japanese and usually likes to wake up well after breakfast.A short and sweet and most of all belated piece for Valentine's Day.
Relationships: Diana Cavendish/Atsuko "Akko" Kagari
Comments: 32
Kudos: 443





	A Dozen Red Roses

Atsuko Kagari was late waking up – as always. Her alarm never seemed to wake her up at the time human beings were _supposed_ to wake up, and thus, Lotte and Sucy – her dormmates and best friends – were already wide awake by the time she actually managed to get out of bed. On a free Friday, managing to get out of bed was a feat in and of itself, as she liked to sleep late whenever she humanly could. After all, if the day was free, and the kitchens could be ransacked in the night, why bother waking up for breakfast?

Besides, her friends had already accustomed to this, so why were they so insistent on waking her up? Lotte and even _Sucy_ were wide awake and trying to get Akko out of bed. And Sucy wasn’t usually wide awake for anything, including being wide awake. Thus, whatever they were trying to get Akko up for must have been very special.

And so, Akko found herself being thrust in front of a door – namely, the door to her dorm room, quite possibly the door she was most familiar with in the entire world. Which was a weird thought, wasn’t it? Being familiar with a door. Still, apart from her bedroom door in her childhood home, she supposed this one was probably the one she was most familiar with.

Slowly, recollection and sense of time returned to the Akko who was currently standing in front of her door – the door she had concluded she was most familiar with - and made her distinctly aware that there was really no good reason for her to be awake on a free Friday and facing her door – except for a faint, but insistent knocking on it.

From her spine – from her sleepy, sleepy spine - an instinct came: _open the door._

So, she did.

And behind it stood Diana Cavendish.

* * *

It had taken Diana several weeks of gathering up courage, as well as liberal encouragement from both Hannah and Barbara – her best friends – until she was able to even start thinking about her plan.

Her plan was, in essence, simple: confess infatuation towards Atsuko Kagari, the only student, the only person she’d ever stood on top a broom with, in the _stratosphere,_ and smiled at her, and sort of held her hand – and this was all stupid. Diana Cavendish was an exceptionally composed, dignified and proud witch. She would never get flustered by something as simple as delivering a bouquet of roses on Valentine’s Day.

Except that she was very flustered, as well as embarrassed by what she was about to do.

But – they had stood together, on a broom, in the _stratosphere!_ And Akko had held her hand, and smiled at her from very, very close to her face, and, and, and, well. Well. One must simply do what one must do, yes? Behind the door, she could hear two voices periodically attempting to wake Akko – she concluded that the object of her affections was having trouble waking up. Did that mean Diana would be bothering? No! Mustn’t think that. One must do what one must do.

Her mind ran around in circles much like so, as she stood in front of the Red Team dorm room door. As she overthought the situation more and more, she started wondering if knocking would get easier if she was more familiar with the door. After all, she had hardly ever knocked on this particular door. Perhaps if she built a routine to it, familiarised herself with this door…

Where to start?

“Greetings, door,” Diana started. And then stopped. And then looked around her, to make sure that nobody had seen Diana Cavendish attempt to introduce herself to a door.

She sighed. Truly, only Akko could make one go so insane.

Then she decided that she was Diana Cavendish, _damn it_ (her sensibilities quivered at the use of such a harsh swear word as _damn_ ), and she would not be intimidated by a door or a girl or anything. She took a deep breath.

Raising her hand to the door, she rapped on it, gently and with refinement.

“Atsuko?” she called, using Akko’s proper name – because that was the best part about her, the best possible pet name for her was _her actual, proper name,_ which was so very serendipitous that it made Diana’s toes curl. No, the best part of her was her fiery personality. No, the best part were her eyes. No, the best part was…

There was a hush from behind the door. Then, the periodic attempted waking she had heard became extremely urgent, ongoing waking.

“Akko, up, I’m pouring this into your eyes, I swear, I don’t even know what this _is_ – Sucy, what is this?” Lotte’s voice came in an awfully loud whisper. “It’s the worst poison you have, _right_?!”

“It’s just mint mouthwash,” Manbavaran’s voice was her usual deadpan tone. After that, there was a pause, in which Diana could imagine Lotte giving her friend a look. Sucy’s tone changed into a defeated deadpan. “… mint mouthwash _poison._ ”

“’kay, ‘kay, getting up,” Akko grumbled, her voice moving closer. Diana rapped on the door again.

The door was opened to reveal an extremely bedraggled witch, rubbing her bleary eyes and yawning, with her hair a mess. She was wearing only so extremely short shorts that if questioned, Diana would have had to deny even looking for the sake of propriety and an obnoxiously cute nightshirt with a picture of a bear.

She was perfect.

Diana had rehearsed this in her head. The plan was very simple. She would say something appropriate, something elegant. Then hand the roses. Akko would swoon. And then they would live happily ever after.

First to say something appropriate and elegant.

“I present to you my formal greetings as well as this bouquet of a dozen red roses, as well as my affection in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, as well as a cordial invitation to join me for lunch,” Diana said, looking at Akko’s forehead. Then she thrust the roses forward towards Akko. Diana’s hands were clammy, and her ears had developed a strange hum.

“Huh?” Akko asked, sleepy and confused.

 _Ah. I must simplify my message,_ Diana thought, retracting the roses. And overthought it horribly.

“Hello. Roses mean I like you. Lunch later?” she asked, in a stilted, unnatural tone. Then she thrust the roses forth again, and stood, still as a statue, now staring past Akko’s head at the window of their dorm. Behind Akko, Lotte was trying to appear as if she wasn’t hearing or seeing anything, while Sucy looked downright gleeful.

Akko processed the words that had been presented to her. Then she gave as thorough and full a response as her current, sleepy and discombobulated state allowed her to.

“Aww, thanks. I like you too.” she mumbled, giving Diana a tired grin, taking the roses and leaning forward to give Diana a one-handed hug. “See you at lunch.”

And she shut the door in Diana’s face.

Behind the door, Diana blinked.

* * *

Turning, Akko put the roses down on the nearest table, and made for the bed.

And almost made it.

Lotte had been too stunned to react for a second, but as her cognitive functions returned, she quickly moved to grab Akko by the shoulders. And shake her. And shake her some more.

“What did you do?!” she gasped, still shaking Akko, who was quickly regaining her senses.

“What?!” Akko asked, shakily, as she was still being shaken. “She just brought me a Friend’s Day present, what’s wrong with that? It’s just like you said!”

“What?” Lotte asked, letting go of Akko.

“Friend’s Day! You told me it’s what you do here in Europe, you bring presents to your friends, it’s not necessarily romantic or anything, yadda yadda, that’s what you said!” Akko complained, remembering how Lotte had educated her on Valentine’s Day traditions.

Lotte gaped. “No, Akko! No! It’s what we do in _Finland_! Diana is from England! And even in Finland, if you give someone twelve red roses on February 14th, it’s – it’s – it’s –“

“It’s what?”

“It’s…” Lotte made a noise and gestured vaguely with her hands.

“It’s mnhgnh?” Akko asked, even more confused. “What’s that mean?”

“No! It’s – the opposite of friendly!” Lotte choked out, desperately willing her friend to understand.

Akko gasped, offended. “What, she wants to be my enemy? I’ll show her!”

“No!” Lotte let out a hoarse scream of pure frustration and devolved into speechlessness.

“It’s romantic, dumbass,” Sucy chimed in, looking about as gleeful as she could without actually emoting that much.

In Akko’s head, a tiny Akko started to unwind a comically large jack-in-the-box.

“But she didn’t bring me chocolate,” Akko mumbled.

“In England, they bring roses!” Lotte regained her ability to speak. Tiny Akko cranked the handle of her jack-in-the-box a little harder.

“So, what you’re saying is…” Akko began, eerily calm. “That giving me those roses is the same for Diana as a _honmei-choco_?”

“Yes! Probably!”

There was a moment of quiet contemplation.

“Akko?”

The jack-in-the-box sprang open. Akko’s eyes widened.

“Sucy! Gimme the mint poison!” she shouted, turning to the potions mistress.

“It’s just mouthwash,” Sucy grumbled, handing the vial with greenish-purple liquid in it over to Akko.

Akko poured half of its contents into her mouth, swirled it around, and leaned to spit it out of the window. Somebody shouted “hey!” from down below, and the sound went unheeded by Akko, who simply slammed the window shut. Then she grabbed her wand, a surprisingly immaculate looking, neatly wrapped box from under her mattress, and sprinted off without bothering to get dressed.

Lotte and Sucy were left behind.

They shared a look.

* * *

Akko ran as fast as she could. The cold stone floors felt insanely cold under her bare feet. A honmei choco? As roses? But, did that mean that Diana thought she was the woman of the relationship?

Then again, Akko concluded, there weren’t that many options in relationship with two women in it. In fact, there was precisely one option.

Her head was pounding with a singular, undefined goal. As usual, she didn’t exactly have a plan in mind. She had made a chocolate for Diana. It had been a mad, unformed plan in the back of her head, one she figured she wouldn’t actually have the courage to follow through with, but she had made a chocolate, anyways, and had wrapped it up, too, and had hoped. And then when Diana had appeared, she’d been too sleepy to understand anything except “affection” and “like” and “this isn’t a chocolate, so this is one of those European things Lotte told me about, play it cool, Akko.”

And she had messed it up!

Why? Why had her friends let her sleep for so long? Why didn’t they wake her up every morning, punctually, so she could be ready for any possible Diana visits? Why did Finland have to have such weird Valentine’s Day traditions?!

Akko groaned, internally recognising that really, this was all her fault, absolving her friends (and Finland) of any blame.

The distance was short, so she was at Diana’s door in no time, with chocolate and wand in hand. She pulled on the door, only to find it locked.

Finding a locked door, a normal person would have knocked.

Akko was not normal.

* * *

Diana had appeared in the dorm, looking like a ghost. No, that would have been an understatement. If one was to ask Hannah and Barbara, Diana looked like what one would see if one managed to somehow brutally torture a ghost to death.

“So… how did it go?” Barbara asked, hesitantly, after a moment of looking at Diana, who had gone to stare at her bookshelf for no particular reason.

“… sub-optimally,” Diana said, in a hollow voice. “Girls, I messed it up.”

There was a sound from the door, as if someone was pulling on it.

“Well, maybe it isn’t that bad?” Hannah suggested, hopefully.

“No, girls, I did well and truly fu-“ Diana began.

“ _MUROUWA!”_ a voice shouted, from outside the door. The door burst inwards, spreading dust and rubble everywhere, including on Hannah and Barbara. In the newly created archway stood Atsuko Kagari, looking for all intents and purposes like a madwoman. Diana gaped at her.

Hannah and Barbara looked back and forth between the two.

“What did you _do,_ Diana?” Hannah whispered, terrified.

Akko rushed forward, making Diana take an involuntary step backwards. Thrusting her hands out, she let out a panicked, over-energetic yelp, panting from exertion.

“Chocolate!”

Diana blinked.

Suddenly, she felt very surreal. Here she was, standing in her dorm room, and her crush, who was wearing the very chic combination of short shorts and the remains of a recently murdered door, was pointing a wand at her and screaming “chocolate.”

“Whuh.” Diana said, completely out of it.

With her finely tuned emotional instincts, Akko sensed a modicum of confusion from Diana’s direction, and endeavoured to explain.

“In Japan, not roses, chocolate!” she pattered out, still labouring with her breath. “So, here, chocolate! And lunch later!”

She moved her wand aside and Diana could in fact see a surprisingly elegant box in her hand.

There was some type of light beginning to dawn in her mind, but everything was still too absurd for her to truly make sense of the situation.

Akko was impatient.

“Take it!” Akko demanded, stepping closer – very much so, in fact – and pressing the box into Diana’s hand, who didn’t resist, briefly dazed by the sudden closeness. Before she could react in any way, Akko darted forward, and there was a brief, unmistakeably minty flash around Diana’s general mouth area. Akko drew away, looked at her for a while, blushed scarlet, and promptly turned to run out of the (former) door, calling out over her shoulder: “I don’t know how to fix that! See you at lunch!”

Her footsteps receded.

“Also, you’re super pretty and I like you!”

Her voice faded, also, and they heard the Red Team dorm room door slam from a distance.

Hannah and Barbara, still covered in dust and rubble, gaped.

Diana was silent.

“So, that’s what you mean by sub-optimal… she’s actually _crazy_ ,” Hannah said, shaking her head slowly, with a tone of almost-wonderment, as if it was impressive for someone to be _that_ crazy.

Diana was silent.

Barbara nodded her assent. “Yeah, to blow down the door… and the k-kiss…”

Diana’s hands went to her mouth.

The kiss. She had been kissed. By Akko. It hadn’t been much of a kiss and frankly she wasn’t sure if she’d actually felt anything or just imagined lip contact, but that had been a kiss. Barbara had seen it. It was a confirmed kiss.

“Girls,” Diana began, shakily. Hannah and Barbara turned to their friend, ready to console her over the actions of her crush.

“I wish for both of you to know that this is, quite possibly…” Diana began. Hannah and Barbara took a sympathetic step forward, concern written on their faces.

They were both taken aback.

“The _greatest day of my life._ ” Diana said.

And smiled.


End file.
